Maulana Wahiduddin Khan | Discover God | Al Risala, July 1988
The most important fact that we must grasp about this world is that it was fashioned by One Maker – other than whom there is no greater being. The words, ‘‘Allahu akbar” (God is Great) which Muslims say repeatedly in their daily prayers, bear witness to God’s greatness – the most momentous reality of the entire universe.
The mere act of acknowledging this greatest of all realities is in itself no small matter, for, if we are earnest in our recognition of the greatness of God, we in turn make ourselves eligible for greatness in this world. What then, of the people of the Western world, who have subscribed to the greatness of the Universe, conceiving of nothing greater? This is mental submission which has apparently enabled them to excel over all other nations of the world. If the acknowledgement of a purely material scheme of existence can raise them to such height just imagine how exalted should be the stature of the people who discover the true greatness of God – the one and only God who created a Universe of such staggering proportions.
Yet, on all sides, we see the Muslims defeated and subjugated. Why is it that the blessings which should flow from our saying, “God is great,” have not descended upon us, while the nations of the western world have reaped the full rewards of saying, “Great is the World.” The only explanation we can offer is that when we utter the words “God is Great,” we are paying lip-service to the ideal which they express, and sometimes we do not even understand the full import of what we say. We are happy to broadcast the words, “Allahu akbar” far and wide, but their meaning has yet to penetrate the innermost recesses of our own hearts and minds.
We have still to discover how to make these words travel inwards to the depth of our own souls. The atmosphere may so vibrate with the sound of the Muslim call to prayer, that the words, “Allahu akbar” reach the ears of every single mortal being, but God’s Angles are still awaiting the day when our hearts will sincerely begin to beat to the awesome rhythm of these words. It is only when our hearts begin to throb with a profound sense of God’s greatness that the blessings of our saying, “God is Great” will descend upon us.